Recently, one of you asked me if I could translate a phrase into Latin for you. I had to confess that I could not, right off the top of my head. Unfortunately my Latin is limited to a few popular phrases such as “E pluribus unum”, “out of many, one”—which is, of course, on the great seal of these United States and on our money.
And then there’s the motto of Harvard University: “Veritas” or “truth”. But did you know that the original motto of that school, founded to train men for the Christian ministry, was actually "Veritas pro Christo et ecclesia " “Truth for Christ and his church?”
That’s about it for my Latin, except for one other phrase which we still sing in church, Protestants and Catholics alike, “Magnificat!” “Magnificat anima mea Dominum.”
You heard this beautiful phrase sung magnificently at our choir’s recent Christmas concerts. They sang the beautiful “Magnificat” of the contemporary British composer, John Rutter. “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.” “Magnificat anima mea Dominum.”
(choir sing)
You know, for many folks in our community, our Christmas Concerts are the only Christmas worship experience they’re going to have. I’ve heard them say so fairly often. That’s just the world we live in these days. You see, we always have to realize that whenever we open these doors for any reason, for any program or event, we’re “doing church.” So, how important it is, for example, that our concert goers receive warm hospitality and get good theology through the music Jim chooses. How important it is that they hear the full, beautiful, powerful truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And thanks to Jim and our choir, that’s what they get. From the most familiar carols to the glory of a full “Magnificat” they heard the message of Christmas. That God, in Christ Jesus, comes in love and grace and power, to be with us and to heal this world.
The Magnificat is, after all, a song. Those verses I read a few minutes ago from Luke’s gospel are one of several songs that Luke includes in his telling of the story of Jesus—this song of Mary, and the songs of Zechariah and of Simeon. Most biblical scholars think that these songs were out there in the very early church even before the gospels themselves had been written and circulated around. These songs came out of the earliest faith of the Christian community and its worship. Their words tell the “good news” of what Jesus Christ meant to them. In very beautiful ways they pull together all the strands and layers and meanings of our faith.
My soul magnifies or tells out the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” Mary sings, “for he has looked with favor on his servant, lowly as she is. From this day forward all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me. His name is holy, his mercy sure from generation to generation toward those who revere him. He has shown strength with his arm, he has routed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has pulled down rulers from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has come to the help of his servant, remembering his mercy, according to the promises he made to our ancestors.”
What a song! My heavens! Sometimes if you just hear it sung, especially in a language you don’t understand, like Latin, you just think “Oh, isn’t that lovely!” But even so I’d bet that Rutter’s version of this song made some people who were paying attention sit up in their seats. When the choir got to “Fecit potentiam in brachio suo,” “he hath shown strength with his arm…”, the full power of that message came through loud and clear. This is much more than just a meek and mild, harmless newborn somewhere in a manger. This is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who comes to rule the earth with righteousness and peace.
If you know your Bible, you’ll hear echoes here of Hannah’s song in the second chapter of First Samuel. You’ll hear echoes of Psalms 35 and 89 and of the prophet, Habbakuk. This song Mary sings pulls together the faith of the people that has sustained them for generations and adds their new affirmation of the Christ as Messiah. Luke has Mary sing this song to proclaim that Jesus is fulfilling all God’s promises to Israel and all their yearnings for a different kind of life and different kind of world. As our familiar carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” puts it: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
Our hopes, our fears…for us all is Jesus born. We all need this savior—to bring us help and hope and healing. And the world needs this savior. Especially in times of uncertainty and violence and fear, the world needs more than a baby in a manger. The world needs a savior. And that’s what Mary’s song proclaims. She sings to those, as Zechariah’s song puts it, “to those in darkness and in the shadow of death. The dawn from heaven will break upon us, to guide our feet in the way of peace.”
New Testament scholar Marcus Borg says that Mary’s song and Zechariah’s song, indeed the Christmas story as a whole, “combine what we often separate—namely religion and politics, spirituality and a passion for [the transformation] of this world.” Our hopes and fears and the hopes and fears of all God’s people throughout the world. The darkness of our hearts and the darkness of conditions which limit people to less than the fullness of life. The shadows of death through which we each and all walk at times in our lives and the shadows of death which hover over far too many of God’s precious children. Upon it all will this heavenly light shine.
A friend of mine, a Lutheran pastor in Atlanta, the Rev. Bradley Schmeling, was recently interviewed by The Christian Century. Bradley is known as a compassionate pastor and gifted preacher and he was asked how his preaching has changed over the years. He said: “In my early preaching there was a lot of traditional Lutheran language about ‘justification by grace through faith, not by works of law.’ Over time, I began to see that people weren’t worried about whether they were going to heaven or not; they were afraid that they would finish life and find that there hadn’t been any heaven in it.”
For any of us who fear that we might finish life and find that there hadn’t been any heaven in it, Mary sings her song. It is a song about joy, about heaven in this life, which comes, not from superficial jolliness, but from way back in our faith tradition and from deep down within our soul. Joy comes. Joy breaks upon us like the light from heaven, because God keeps God’s promises to us. God’s love for us never ends. The darkness will never overcome it. That’s why, with Mary we can sing: “Magnificat anima mea Dominum.” My soul tells out the greatness of the Lord!”
Joy wells up in us at Christmastime from way back and deep within. Joy wells up and spills over and this is why there are always miracles at Christmas. Always miracles. Sometimes big. Sometimes small. Sometimes public. Sometimes very private. Miracles nevertheless. Miracles of healing and miracles of new life and miracles of unexpected generosity.
Recently a neighbor of this church, not a member, just someone walking by, heard the music, saw the doors open and came in and asked an usher for an offering envelope and left a small gift for the church. She wrote her name on the envelope—and her name is a beautiful Spanish name, Natividad, nativity. And through her, a precious Christmas miracle in our midst, because welling up within her was some experience of deep and magnanimous joy. Natividad.
A bit later this morning, towards the close of our service, we will sing a favorite carol, “Joy to the World.” You may not realize that “Joy to the World” was not written to be a Christmas carol at all. When the British pastor Issac Watts penned the words in 1719, he did so as a protest. Watts, like his father before him, was a non-conformist, meaning that he did not belong to the Church of England. In fact, his father had been prison for his beliefs when the young Isaac was born. As he grew, the boy felt that the way the Church sang the psalms was uninspired and monotonous. He longed for energy and joy. He wrote these words as a new rendition of Psalms 100 and 98. And not until Lowell Mason put the text to music over a hundred years later did this hymn begin to catch on.
Today we consider it a classic and it just wouldn’t feel like Christmas without it. It’s thought that “Joy to the World” became a Christmas song because of its joyous and triumphant sound!
But its message is really much more like the message of Mary’s song from so long ago than any sentimental Christmas carol. “Joy to the world! The Lord is come. He rules the world with truth and grace and make the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love.”
Joy to the world! The Lord is come. Scholar Marcus Borg says that as a child he once sang “the Lord has come.” His mother corrected him. The Lord is come.
He says that for a long time he puzzled over the meaning of this, for he thought that surely Christmas is about the coming of Jesus a long time ago, over two thousand years ago. He has come. But then he came to realize that his mother and words of this hymn are right. “Christmas is about the coming in the present of the Lord who came long ago. Jesus comes again each Christmas…”, ever and still, Jesus is come now into our lives, into this time and into this place. Come to make his blessings flow!
Jesus is come, to be the fulfillment of all our yearning and hope. Jesus is come, to meet all the hopes and fears of our lives and of this world. Jesus is come, to bring to us deep joy, profound joy, joy that overflows into miracles that bring us new birth and miracles that transform this world.
Indeed this is Veritas pro Christo et ecclesia. Truth for Christ and for his world. Here is heaven in this life, here and now.
So, come, all you faithful, joyful and triumphant.
Come, o come, to Bethlehem.
Notes:
The Christian Century, Dec. 11, 2007, p. 11.
Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan. The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Think about Jesus’ Birth. New York: HarperOne, 2007.
Andrew Collins. Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2001.
©Patricia
Farris, 2007. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved.
"An Indescribable Joy"